Rudy Gay Beats Denver Nuggets on Game-Winner (VIDEO)

This is the second game-winning shot in Rudy Gay’s short career in Toronto to date. The Raptors appear to have found themselves a pretty good closer. Per the Globe and Mail: “Just six games into his new surroundings Gay is more than living up to the hype. Tuesday night against a rapid-fire Denver Nuggets team, the game did not exactly go the way Toronto or Gay wanted it to with their big triggerman on the bench for long stretches after getting into early foul trouble. But Gay was on the floor when it counted, with the seconds winding down and the Nuggets clinging to a one-point lead. [...] ‘He’s a big time player, he’s a closer,’ gushed Dwane Casey, the Raptors coach after his team won for the third straight outing. ‘His role card, it will be all across the front of it – closer. He’s done it his whole career.’ [...] Gay started the fourth quarter on the floor with the Raptors clinging to an 82-79 lead, but was forced back to the bench less than three minutes in after picking up his fifth personal foul. After that the game turned into a slugfest, with backup point guard John Lucus providing critical offence off the bench, connecting on four straight three-point shots to help the Raptors maintain the lead. ‘John came in a gave us a big time spark,’ conceded Casey, and it was one of the reason why he was able to keep Gay on the bench for as long as he could. He didn’t check back in until there was 4:50 left on the clock with the Raptors leading 100-96 and Gay said the wait on the bench was excruciating for him. ‘My hands were sweating, I couldn’t stop moving my legs,’ he said. ‘Yeah, I was itching [to get back into the fray].’”